Meanings
nountapir (plural tapirs)
plural tapirs
- An odd-toed ungulate of the genus Tapirus with a long prehensile upper lip.
Once a dark, clumsy tapir stared at us from a gap in the bushes, and then lumbered away through the forest; once, too, the yellow, sinuous form of a great puma whisked amid the brushwood, and its green, baleful eyes glared hatred at us over its tawny shoulder.
1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLCSynonyms: bush cow, mountain cow
Synonyms & antonyms
nounAn odd-toed ungulate of the genus Tapirus with a long prehensile upper lip.
Similar
bush cowmountain cow
Origin
- Old Tupitapi'ira
- Frenchtapir
- Englishtapir
Borrowed from French tapir, from Old Tupi tapi'ira.
More words from French, Old Tupi
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Afrikaans tapir
- tapirlarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Arabic تَابِير
- تَابِير (tabīr)large odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Basque tapir
- tapirlarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Bulgarian тапир
- тапир (tapir)large odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Catalan tapir
- tapirlarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Chinese Mandarin 貘
- 貘 (mò)large odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Czech tapír
- tapírlarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Danish tapir
- tapirlarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Dutch tapir, boskoe
- tapirlarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
- boskoelarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Esperanto tapiro
- tapirolarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Finnish tapiiri
- tapiirilarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
French tapir, maïpouri
- tapirlarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
- maïpourilarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
German Tapir
- Tapirlarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Greek τάπιρος
- τάπιρος (tápiros)large odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Hebrew טפיר
- טפיר (tapír)large odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Hindi टपीर
- टपीर (ṭapīr)large odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Hungarian tapír
- tapírlarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Icelandic káputapír
- káputapírlarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Indonesian babi alu, cipan
- babi alularge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
- cipanlarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
- tenuklarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Italian tapiro
- tapirolarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Japanese バク
- バク (baku)large odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Korean 맥
- 맥 (maek)large odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Latvian tapirs
- tapirslarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Lithuanian tapyras
- tapyraslarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Malay badak babi, badak murai
- badak babilarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
- badak murailarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
- badak tampunglarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
- cipanlarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
- kipanlarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
- kuda airlarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
- senuklarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
- tapirlarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
- tenuklarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
- terenuklarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Norwegian tapir
- tapirlarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Polish tapir
- tapirlarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Portuguese anta, tapir
- antalarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
- tapirlarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Romanian tapir
- tapirlarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Russian тапи́р
- тапи́р (tapír)large odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Spanish tapir, anta
- tapirlarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
- antalarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
- anteburrolarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
- dantalarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
- dantolarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
- mborevílarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
- sachavacalarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
- vaca de montelarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Swedish tapir
- tapirlarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Tagalog tapir
- tapirlarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Thai สมเสร็จ
- สมเสร็จ (sǒm-sèt)large odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Turkish tapir
- tapirlarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Vietnamese lợn vòi, heo vòi
- lợn vòilarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
- heo vòilarge odd-toed ungulate with a long prehensile upper lip of the family Tapiridae
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with tapir
papervapordrapertaperscrapershapercaperrapergaperdaily paperdistinctive paperlavvy paperliquid paperneperrepaper
All rhymes →Sounds the same
Anagrams
Cite this entry
APA
tapir. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tapir
MLA
“tapir.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tapir. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tapir,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tapir.
Source: tapir on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.